Be Influential
The human brain is an incredible thing. There are so many factors occurring deep within our thoughts and emotions that we do not even realize. The six sources of influence as based on the book Influencer touch on all of these inner workings of the brain and stress the importance of influencing people from multiple vantage points. The model is broken into motivation and ability and then further divided by personal, social, and structural. The motivation piece looks at the desire to change behavior, while the ability side addresses the necessary skills and knowledge. Personal, social, and structural categories then address the individual, other people, and the surrounding environment (Grenny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler, 2013). The main takeaway of the model is that all six sources of influence along with the desired result and vital behaviors need to be considered to effectively change behavior.
There are six sources of influence for a reason because each one is important. What strongly influences one person may not strongly influence another, and a combination of the sources of influences leads to behavior change. A minimum of four sources of influence, but preferably all six, need to be used in conjunction to be ten times more likely to succeed in changing behavior (Grenny, Maxfield, & Shimberg, 2013). It is never a great idea to put all of your eggs in one basket; lay your influential eggs into six baskets instead. In my effort for organizational change, I will utilize all six sources of influence so that I have the best chance of being successful by reaching the most people at the deepest levels, particularly with social motivation.
Parents always say to their kids, “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” The children of course say they would not, but we can never underestimate the power of social influence. Peer influence can make all the difference. In an experiment with children and hand washing, when three sources of influence were used to get children to wash their hands, three of the twelve students did. When social motivation, a child simply reminding the other children to wash their hands, was used as the fourth influence, eleven out of the twelve students changed their behavior (VitalSmarts Video, 2009). It’s not just kids that change their behavior due to social motivation. Adults are just as influenced by peer pressure as children, but we are not as aware of it (Buchler, 2012). Peer influence, especially in the form of accountability, seems to be the key to changing behavior.
The more I learn about the inner workings of influence on the human brain, the smarter my brain gets at influencing others to change their behavior.
References
Buchler, C. [VitalSmarts Speakers]. (2012, December 17). Influencer [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu7UBY5euBg
Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., & Shimberg, A. (2013). How to 10x your influence (Rep.).
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer: The new science of leading change. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
VitalSmarts Video. (2009, September 21). All washed up! [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osUwukXSd0k
